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Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Tim Bowness has never, ever disappointed me with his music.
Since my introduction came to his music came from Henry Fool on an episode of
Sid Smith’s Podcasts from the Yellow Room and buying two of his albums on The
Laser’s Edge, it’s always kind of neat to see what Tim will think of next. This
year, he’s released his fourth studio album on the InsideOut Music label
entitled Lost in the Ghost Light. The
album cover which is done by Jarrod Gosling which I could tell he was inspired
by the artwork of Frank Zappa’s 1973 classic, Over-Nite Sensation and the concept story behind it, is sad and
touching.

It tells the story about a fictional rock musician named
Jeff Harrison who was a part of a group called Moonshot who goes through the
present day and it’s a love letter to a memory that lings. The songs on here, take
place between 1967 and 2017 as Tim mentions in the story that it explores both
the majestic and mundane element of the “Rock Life.” It addresses the seeming
permanence of transient fads and the fact they feel imprisoned in specific
pockets between the cultural and actual time period.

Recorded in the States, England, and Sweden between the
genesis of the story in the Autumn of 2009 to 2016 while mixed and mastered by
Steven Wilson, Tim brought some people involved for a helping hand including
Stephen Bennett (The Opium Cartel/Henry Fool), Colin Edwin (Porcupine Tree/Burnt Belief), Bruce Soord (The
Pineapple Thief), Hux Nettemalm (Paatos) and Andrew Booker (No-Man/Henry Fool).

And featuring guests musicians Kim Watkins (Happy The
Man/Camel), Steve Bingham (No-Man), and Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull). When I’ve
heard about the who’s who, I knew right away this is an album I was really
looking forward. I went ahead and bought it straight away on The Laser’s Edge
and from the moment I put the CD on, I was completely staggered.

On my blog site in one of my reviews, I mentioned some of the albums
that are like a movie inside your mind. Lost
in the Ghost Light is one of them. Moonshot
Manchild reminded me of the Wind
& Wuthering-era of Genesis as the character looks back of the good old
days with Moonshot. The synths reminisces between Pink Floyd’s Richard Wright
and Tony Banks as Tim’s voices matches in the time frame for Jeff’s story.

Nowhere Good to Go sees
Jeff now as a vision of himself. He begins to realizes by looking at himself in
the mirror to find out “was it really worth it?” It’s a sad, acoustic, folky
ballad as the song describes Jeff’s fans looking up to him in his heyday. He
goes to a theater that once filled the stage, is now an abandoned arena and you
can feel a pin drop. The reflections of the present of You Wanted to Be Seen is shown.

With reverb vocals, midsection ‘70s synths, and the lights
flashing for success combined with a dramatic rhythm section with a Symphonic
rising sun done in the styles of the mid ‘70s Bowie-sque sound, Tim’s lyrics is
feeling Jeff’s pain and remembrance of his successful career in the time period
of Harrison’s golden-era. Kill the Pain
That’s Killing You has pulse-like rhythmic beats with Netterman’s drums
taking the touches from The Mars Votla’s De-Loused
in the Comatorium-era featuring a psychedelic freak-out by Bennett’s
guitar.

The ghostly image with electronic beats and echoing flute
effect from Kim goes through the situation on the price of success on the
title-track while the closer Distant
Summers is a somber finale to Jeff as he begins his next chapter. He knows
that the good old days he will keep to cherish and remembering them as Colin’s
string bass along with Ian Anderson’s flute lets him know it’s time for to
return and make a comeback.

Tim himself has scored more than just a homerun. I hope he
doesn’t stop because I can imagine there’s a lot more to come. It’s a
reflection and an impressive release this year from Bowness. I have now
listened to this four to six times of Lost
in the Ghost Light. The DVD contains the 5.1 mix by Bruce Soord for Stupid Things That Mean the
World and a stereo mix of the fourth album by Steven Wilson and a picture gallery that contains portraits of Tim himself and performing along with artwork of
Jarrod.

I would like to see Tim record the whole album in front of a
live audience with film that tells the story of Jeff’s life. I know it is way,
way, way too early for top 30 albums
for 2017, but this is definitely in my top 10 of this year. If you are going to
have a huge amount of stars, it would be either 9 or a 10.

Monday, February 27, 2017

This is for me, one of the most explosive albums I’ve
listened to from start to finish. And for me, it is also I forgot to mention, a
Holy Shit album! From Sweden, combining the efforts of Thrash, Groove, and
Southern Metal is a band called Methane. Since their formation five years ago,
they have released their first album on the Dark Star Records label entitled, The Devil’s Own. The four piece are
bringing Metal in all of its glory and getting back into the styles of Thrash
and how it’s supposed to sound. And believe me, they have done it right.

Very much giving the so-called Nu-Metal scene and Limp Bizkit the
big giant middle finger and with a gigantic cannon blast waiting to happen with
pummeling beats and pounding rhythms to get ready to head bang. Methane are
like a ferocious beast waiting to unleash and attack its prey at the right
moment at the right time. With a sound of a motorcycle revving up and ready to
go from Jimi Masterbo along with the thundering bass lines by lead vocalist,
Tim Scott on Blood, Sweat, and Beer,
they deliver the mix to all the work to kick ass and pop a keg of beer.

Tim’s screaming voice channels between Cathedral’s Lee
Dorrian and Pantera’s Phil Anselmo while Jimi’s guitar goes into over with an
intense snarl. He and Dylan Campbell hammer it out between the lead and riffs
as it ends with the can opening to get down, drunk, and having a lot of work
they have accomplished. They also show their softer side….for a little bit. On
tracks, Stone Garden and Hang Me High which two of the tracks
show a mellowing touch for the first 2 minutes and 40 seconds while the closing
track, 40 seconds.

With clean guitars and acoustic rhythms before kicking it
into gear as if someone had punched someone in the gut. It is unexpected, but
Methane show no sign of stopping. Mellow and Harder edge? An interesting
combination. Scar and Bars is on the
edge essence of early Metallica, Thrash-Punk, and Poison Idea’s The Badge while Spit on your Grave which I could spot a teensy-bit of the tritone
on the introduction.

It delves back for the bikes to ride off thanks to Andrea’s
crunching skull sound on the drums. One day, this track is going to be an
anthem. An anthem? Damn straight!
Earth-shattering it is. Both Masterbo and Dylan Campbell bring the
dueling guitars like no other channeling the styles of K.K. Downing, Dimebag
Darrell, Kerry King, Kirk Hammett, and Adrian Murray.

The two of them duel it out as they make the volcanoes erupt
and ready to reign the lava reigning hell. With two EP’s, e-book, and two music
videos to name a few, The Devil’s Own is
Metal’s sound that is balls to the wall. They are about to embark a tour here in
the States this April and May. Let’s hope they get the States revved up with
head banging, lose their minds, and play it really, really, really Fucking loud!

Friday, February 24, 2017

Magma who have been around for 48 years and despite the
line-up changes, they are for me one of the most influential, hypnotic,
experimental, and powerful Progressive Rock bands to come out of the 1970s in
France. Among supporters including Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, Julian Cope, John
Lydon, Jello Biafra, and the late great David Bowie, it was for me, this
eruptive blast that blew the doors down with a big bang. With the influences of
Opera, Classical Music, Avant-Garde, Experimental, Jazz, and Rock, they can
take those genres and give you a jolt like there’s no tomorrow.

Their music is as they’ve mentioned in the Magma Live album “A mirror where every
can see a reflection of who he is.” They created their own musical language created
by leader and founder, Christian Vander called Kobaia. It’s very much like
giving the Klingon’s and the Vulcan’s a big giant middle finger and Magma does
it right. That and their fourth studio album which was a follow up to their
magnum opus, Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh
entitled, Kohntarkosz released in
1974.

This is where it all started in which known as a three-part
trilogy of the story that consist K.A.
(Kohntarkosz Anteria) and Emehntehtt-Re.
This is the second part of the Egyptian pharaoh himself. It starts off with a
cannon blast of a crescendo between the keyboards and drum introduction between
Vander and the Yamaha organ as if we are about to head down in the deep tunnels
and inside the pharaoh’s tomb.

It’s almost as if he’s calling upon the character to see
what lies ahead. It is done in 2-parts of the suite and the walking down the
corridor’s and the tension set by Vander and the vocals between Klaus Blasquiz
and Stella Vander, is amazing and the eerie Crimson-sque section and Jannick
Top’s bass tone. And then the shout of “STOHT!” featuring the eerie organ,
bass, and Stella’s vocals just sends chills down my spine.

I love how the piano along with the vocals between Stella
and Christian follow the melody on the instrument of entering in the tomb
before the dooming noise gets quieter before an alarming shriek of the synths
that can make you jump in a brief second that we are inside the tomb. Then, the
piano and operatic vocals is shivering and jazzy thanks to the homage of Vander’s
hero, John Coltrane.

The second part has these heavenly beauty sections as Vander
vocals calms and delving into some great drum patterns and Rhodes-like sections. I like how it channels the styles Soft Machine's Mike Ratledge to show a little bit of a tribute to the
early sound with the fuzz tone sections in the psychedelic-era in the first
four minutes of the piece.

It goes up for a bit as he, Vander, Jannick, and Stella
raise the bar and the tempo goes up a notch. The tempo gets to an increasing
level for the last five minutes of the second part and then it ends with a
dooming militant funeral march and the chanting. I had goosebumps throughout
the entire two-part suite and knowing that have done justice. But it’s not over
yet.

The haunting and sinister neo-classical composition of
Jannick Top’s Ork Alarm. With the
ticking clock, Top’s ominous cello sections as Klaus Basquiz gives us to know
that the people of the Ork are ready for a war and the people from Zeuhl Wortz
are preparing a fight to the death they are waiting for. I can hear the essence
between RIO bands including Art Zoyd, Univers Zero, and Present throughout the
sections of the composition.

And then Blossom Toes’ Brian Godding comes in with these
terrifying sections on his guitar to give the people their weapons and their
gear and knowing when it is time to fight and the battle will begin very, very
soon. His guitar and Klaus set up these alarming noises as he matches his
shouting lines as the temperature goes up to 100 before ending with a chaotic
effect and ending abruptly.

The closer, Coltrane
Sundia as I’ve mentioned earlier, is Christian’s tribute to the late great
master himself. It’s almost as if Vander wrote it as a memorial to his hero and
doing in the styles as if he wanted to continue the structures of A Love Supreme as Brian gives an
emotional farewell up into the heavens and the piano knowing that to say thank
you for giving Christian to follow in Coltrane’s footsteps.

For me, Kohntarkosz is
a terrifying, scariest and one of their crowning masters I’ve listened to. This is Magma at their
best. And with their documentary announced last year of covering the history of
this remarkable band by Laurent Goldstein, it’ll be worth exploring when it
comes out. If you want to embark and get ready to delve into the sound of
Kobaia, Zeuhl, and Progressive territories, then walk into the dark-like tombs
of Kohntarkosz.

Magma’s Christian Vander once said in the 2012 documentary Romantic Warriors II: A Progressive Music
Saga About Rock In Opposition, “The
Music was born in the night. There are many kinds of music in the world, but to
discover the inner cosmos.” It help define to show a darker and inner
complexity of the genre of what is known as the RIO movement. And one of those
bands that have taken me to gigantic lengths thanks to the 2012 documentary, a
band from Denver, Colorado named Thinking Plague.

Since their formation in 1982 by Mike Johnson and the
legendary Bob Drake, they have released six studio albums and following in the
footsteps of Present, Henry Cow, Art Zoyd, Alban Berg, and Italian progressive
group, Pierrot Lunaire, they have released their seventh album this year on the
Cuneiform label entitled, Hoping Against
Hope. It is their follow up to their 2012 album, Decline and Fall. It is for me, one of the most terrifying and
scariest albums I’ve ever listened to.

With their new album according to Johnson himself, the
band’s music needed a theme that was something hopeful, real, and organic. With
the combinations between Neo-Classical Music, Avant-Rock, and of course Rock In
Opposition, it is a grim, sinister wonder with a terrifying force that you can
imagine of what we are going through the political movement and what is
happening right now this year.

The concept here on this album, is stronger and compelling than
ever. Alongside Mike Johnson, Mark Harris on Reeds, Dave Wiley on Bass, Robin
Chestnut on Drums, Bill Pohl on Guitar, and Elaine di Falco on Accordion and
Lead Vocals, they entered the new year with an eruptive bang by making it set in a
fictional dystopian world that it’s living in and there’s no turning back now.

It’s not only a dark album, but it is a critical
constructive viewpoint of what is happening in the world that we are facing in.
The alarming intro from the accordion and the ominous reeds, piano chords, and
dynamic guitars, knows that we are in a ride of something dangerous landing
between us on the opener, The Echoes of
their Cries. It has some intense riffs between the bass and guitar and
Harris’ reeds give the image or the allusions that it is delivering a big
wake-up call.

Commuting to Murder
deals with the capitalist economics and militarism’s congruities. You have the
sounds of the toy piano, hay wiring effects, guitars sending Morse code and
Elaine’s vocals gives you the chilling backgrounds. I have to love her essence
throughout the midsection, the homage to which I call the Northette’s vocals in
the styles of the Canterbury scene for a brief second. But it’s the guitar that
comes to essence of Richard Pinhas, Robert Fripp, and Roger Trigaux that just
send the arm hairs of mine, going up.

The styles of Present, fills up the whole space with this
dooming rhythm that something is crawling underneath your skin. It’s evidential
on The Great Leap Backwards. I could
tell that Thinking Plague have done their homework very well carrying the RIO
movement torch and never letting it burn out. Near the end section of the last
38 seconds of the piece, everything goes chaotic thanks to the drums, guitar,
and reed instruments going into a nightmarish tone and ending abruptly.

Mind you, this is not an easy album to listen to from start
to finish, but I admire this very much. I have to admit, I’m not a big Thinking
Plague fan, but I do respect what is on here and the band as well. They recently decided to do a
crowd-funding campaign for the album on Kickstarter in which they raised $8,634
to work on the album and they succeeded to reach their goal.

I have listened to this four times now and they made me open
my eyes even more to discover more of their music and since I’ve mentioned
this earlier, I hope they continue to wave the Rock In Opposition flag and
never letting it drop. A scary, ominous, yet powerful release this year from
the good people from Cuneiform Records.

Two years ago, I’ve discovered for me one of the most
interesting bands to come out of Los Angeles, California. I remember buying one
of their albums on The Laser’s Edge website and it was in one of my top
albums of 2015. That band is Edge of Paradise. Since their formation six years
ago, they have taken the essence of Metal combining with theatrical, symphonic,
progressive, and now with an electronic release with their EP entitled, Alive.

Margarita Monet and her bandmates Dave Bates, John
Chominsky, and Nick Ericson have taken full control aboard the Millennium
Falcon and getting ready for more light-speed’s that will await them. Her
soothing vocals still send chills down to the bone and in your spine since I
was blown away with their second album Immortal
Waltz. Their new EP shows a very diverse sound. And the evidence is quite
interesting from what I’ve listened to from beginning to the very end.

With Dust to Dust, they
combined the sounds between electronica, symphonic metal, trip-hop, and
industrial rock while Shade of Crazy brings
thrash riffs, doom, insanity, and a faster ride into insanity, bringing to mind
of the Ozzy-era of Black Sabbath and Within Temptation having a nice hot and
spicy BBQ sandwich with a huge amount of Tabasco and Wasabi sauce.

Margarita brings her theatrical side on the innocence being
lost in your own fantasy on the haunting piano ballad, Mystery. While the lyrics deal with searching for the answers, it
is quite understanding that knowing that you can become your own worst enemy
and dealing with the facts of life. The opening title-track is in full control.
It is an enthralling composition that kicks into high gear by bursting the door
down.

Not only that, but it starts things off with a gigantic
battering ram ready to hit with an eruptive explosion in full speed by reminiscing
Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral-era
meeting My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. Not a bad way to start an EP off as
I’ve mentioned with a gigantic battering ram bursting down the floodgates.

Edge of Paradise are now one of my favorite bands to come
out of L.A., and I hope they will keep the flames of Metal growing more and
more and never, ever letting it burn out.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

It has been a good while and a few years or so since I’ve done
a Jazz album review for my blogsite, Music from the Other Side of the Room. My
re-introduction to the world of the genre came when I was back in Houston
Community College as a musician/student 12 years ago when I moved away from
filmmaking into Jazz studies and discovered the true geniuses of Miles Davis,
Thelonious Monk, and John Coltrane. And the rest is history. I still admire real good Jazz. And I'll stand by to that term until the day I die. It wasn’t until after I had graduated I stood upon the
music of The Microscopic Septet.

Since their formation 37 years ago they have been one of the
most iconoclastic and innovative Jazz groups I’ve listened to. I remember the
summer of that year in 2014 and going to Wayside Music and buying one of their albums online
which was Manhattan Moonrise. And I
was hooked. This was going back into the mid-to-late 1950s of the cats from New
York and performing in the style of what it was back during that time period.

They released the first four albums from 1983 to 1988 whilst
touring and recording before calling it a day in 1992. It wasn’t until 11 years
ago they reformed again when their previous work on a 2-CD volume set entitled,
Seven Men in Neckties and Surrealistic Swing which were reissued
by Cuneiform Records which included an early recording of alto saxophonist and
founder of Tzadik Records, John Zorn. I knew right away I had to jump on the
train of the Septet’s music and not to mention they are widely known for their
theme song to NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

This year, they have released their new album entitled, Been Up So Long It Looks Like Down to Me:
The Micros Play the Blues. The name is a pun of the Richard Farina 1966
novel as co-leader Philip Johnston and Joel Forrester mentions that it speaks to
the essential optimism of the music of the Micros’ sound. The optimism is
showing the concepts of blues, joy, rebellion, whole-hearted, and as Philip
describes it as boisterous eroticism.

I have to admit with that last quote, they have some good
humor in them and I admire that idea. And believe me, putting the sound of the
blues underneath the microscope, it is a surreal, mind-blowing, strange, and
revolutionary release that I have listened to. And I enjoyed every moment of
it. Few of the centerpieces on here,
just made me smile and knowing that they have brought it back to give the genre
of Jazz music, a real kick in the gut.

Dark Blue begins
with string bassist David Hofstra and Richard Dworkin’s drums followed by Joel’s
piano work, slowed down walking rhythm as the horn section comes through. It
reminded me of the 1958 jazz standard, Centerpiece.
And thanks to the saxophones, they take turns through throughout the bars
before call and response section.

Don’t Mind If I Do
and Quizzical has the people heading down
the dance floor and doing both tap dancing and the jitterbug with both the Monk-sque
and 1930s swing vibe while the opener, Cat
Toys inspired by the Hammond B-3 driven soul jazz and originally written
for a short film about a dwelling space alien looking for a taste for (you
guessed it) felines. Johnston brings you toward as a listener to the midnight
showings either on a Friday and Saturday night for this strange creature from
creature and his bizarre obsession of the cats.

The 14-bar Blues
Cubistico sees all four of the sax’s alto, baritone, soprano, and tenor
including Dave Sewelson bring the herculean works on his solo through his baritone
improvisations. He just brings the house down through that section as the band
watch him to see what will happen next. It shows that the Septet are a band of
brothers, and they work as a team and just let Dave go and lets him know when
they are coming back into the head.

They launched a campaign on Kickstarter last year in which they did on
their previous album, Manhattan Moonrise where
91 backers pledged $9,515 for the band to record the follow up and it was a
success. For me, I had a real good time listening to The Microscopic Septet’s
new album. And I need to continue their journey to see what I was missing from
their previous work in the early 1980s and with their Cuneiform releases also.

If you love the styles of the Blues, Jazz, and Swing, I
recommend Been Up So Long It Looks Like
Down to Me: The Micros Play the Blues. You will not be disappointed to see
and understand real good jazz music like nothing you’ve ever heard. And in the
words of the late great Harvey Pekar, “Ordinary
life is pretty complex stuff.”

Saturday, February 11, 2017

In 1973, Tomska R. Huntley created this concept that was
destined for German TV which was Tope’s
Sphere. The original idea was to be a groundbreaking animated series with a
live soundtrack by UK/German super group, Klementine Uhren. It was supposed to
feature Tope, the knitted-monkey protagonist and Chode, his sidekick to go on
an outer space adventure with a psychedelic rock score.

It feels very much like when I was a kid waking up to some
of my favorite Saturday Morning cartoons back in the old days of the late
‘80s/early ‘90s whether it was the original Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sonic the Hedgehog, Spider-Man, X-Men, or Batman: The Animated Series. But back to
the story, it seemed like a very interesting concept, but then it didn’t
happen.

What happened was both Tomska and the group weren’t too
happy with the final mixes and it disappeared promptly. Tomska’s dream was
shattered and he was bankrupt. He dumped what was left of Tope’s Sphere and vanished into the Himalayan Mountains. It seemed
like it would never see the light of day……until 44 years later, the Bad
Elephant Music label decided to bring the concept to life set in an audio-space
rock narrative adventure.

Russ Russell enlisted the band called Orange Clocks to
re-imagine the soundtrack, parts of the script and what was left of the stage
props, video tape, and the abandoned series to a new life for the 21st
century while bringing Tomska’s vision back to life. Martin Winsley does an
incredible job as the narrator as he resembles the wackiness between Stan “The
Man” Lee, Gong’s Daevid Allen, and Peter Jones who did the narration for the
BBC TV adaptation and the radio series of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

It is a Space-Rock, Psychedelic swirling adventure of Tope
and Chode’s story and close your eyes and imagine as a young man waking up
early in the morning as I’ve mentioned for one of your favorite Saturday
morning series to record it on your VCR. Ambush
is done in the styles of Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come’s Galactic Zoo Dossier-era featuring some screaming effects done in
the style of an early Roger Waters Pow R,
Toc H.

Fun in the Stars has
these space-out riffs, leading freak-out work as Tode is cackling and heading
for some excitement with Chode into the solar system while he bravely takes on
the challenge to save his friend with a ‘60s psych beatle-sque intro before
riding into a powerful roar with the Trouble
with Chode. Then, everything becomes a dangerous idea for Tode with the Magical Fields with its Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy Elton John session meets the music of a pre-Dark Side-era of Pink Floyd.

With lead guitars and it swirls into a great climax before
Tope is ready for the challenge for the Big
Track. I love the swirling space-rock dazzle on here and then its rising
climax when he crashes down gets the drums, lead guitar, and vocalizations up
for action and knowing he’s on his way to save Chode as Stromp’s Stomp brings to mind the glory days of the ‘70s Glam
Rock-era.

I had an amazing blast over and over again listening Tope’s Sphere 2 by Orange Clocks. It
brought back memories as a kid listening to those Disney audio adventures of Dick Tracy and The Rocketeer with the 3D Comic Books that go with the story. Bad
Elephant Music has never done me wrong when it comes to amazing releases and I
hope they will continue to do more this year.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

It’s been a good while since I’ve done a review on the My
Kingdom Music label. So it’s a good idea to see what I’ve been missing. One of
them is an avant-duo called, Lethe. They have formed five years ago and they
have unleashed their second album, The
First Corpse on the Moon. According to Tor-Helge Skei, it is a snapshot in
time. It’s this cross between electronic, avant-garde, metal, experimental, and
pop featuring six session musicians to be backed up. There isn’t any rules,
expectations, or compromises, but here, it is a very interesting album I’ve
listened to.

I’ve mentioned the genres in there, but also there’s a touch
of a metallic-electronica yet trip-hop adventure that Tor-Helge and Anna Murphy
delve into the waters between each other. I have to admit, I’m not crazy about
the music, but the duo themselves are intriguing and create the darkness and
eerie scenarios they have shown that space has no place to go and nowhere to go
home.

Around the five highlights on here, it’s quite obvious that Lethe are
taking the listeners beyond the stratosphere of loneliness, insanity, somber,
and far-out journeys that you’ve never heard before. Inexorbitant Future starts with these eerie whispers along with
ambient sounds, minor piano chords, and Tor’s vocals gives you a chance that his
character in the song is scared and knowing that his time has come.

With its trip-hop electronic drum kit sample, Anna comes
through the support level to help through Tor’s lyrics. My Doom is where New Wave, Thrash Metal, and Post-Rock are combined
into one. With ‘80s keyboards, distorted guitars/heavy riffs, it is a
Thrash-Electronic/Goth Rock style that I’ve never expected! It’s almost as if
the Crack the Skye-era of Mastodon
were cooking BBQ with the Sorcerer-era of Tangerine Dream, Devo, and the early sounds of The
Cure.

Teaching Birds How to
Fly has this interesting introduction with Morse Code signals from the
machine like ARS synths that the bass, guitar, chords, and rapid rhythmic beats
with pummeling drums ascends the trip to the trees of hope. The
alternative/gothic beauty of Wind To Five
feels like an orchestral ride into the night with a trippy midsection
groove.

It almost reminded me of the final fourth movement of Fire!
Orchestra’s Enter. It is innovative
at times combining these ingredients of Metal, Electronic, and Jazz
vocalizations by Anna and Tor. And then we go into the closer of Exorcism. We are almost inside of a
mental patient’s mind as Anna’s chilling vocals sends a chill down to the spine of goosebumps that is waiting to happen.

There’s some eerie atmospheres on the sax and horn sections
as the ending goes through this electronic haywire effect as the piano sets the
dooming finale. This is an album that may not be your cup of coffee, but the
duo musicians have shown a lot of ideas and lot of conceptual moments of being
lost in space and never coming back.

Monday, February 6, 2017

Horisont are one of the most amazing bands I’ve listened to.
Since forming 11 years ago in their hometown in Sweden and with four albums in
the can, the quintet bring the essence of Hard Rock and Progressive influences
right into the bone. When it was announced last year that they were signed to a
new label with Century Media Records, I knew right away I couldn’t wait what
they would do next since I was blown away by their previous album, Odyssey. This year, they’ve released
their fifth album entitled, About Time.

It is a sci-fi adventure into time with Space, Metal, and
Prog textures with the ‘70s rocking voyage to hurtle through the outer limits.
And while the cover resembles between EC Comics of Weird Fantasy, Weird Science, and Tales from the Crypt along with magazine sci-fi covers from the
1950s, it quite obvious they know their inspirations when it comes to be
launched inside the ship and getting ready for take-off.

I’ve always wanted to check out Horisont’s music for a good,
good while since they were on Lee Dorrian’s label Rise Above Records during
that time frame and I forgotten about them until three years ago I bought Odyssey and then I was completely
hooked. About Time can do no wrong in
my book and it takes on a whole other level with a brilliant and light-speed
alchemy space-metal-prog voyage and it is fucking amazing!

Horisont’s music is never retro, nor nostalgic, they have
their own sound and they want to honor and stay true to their roots and they
are a band I’ve waited for many years to delve into my entire life. And the six
highlights on the album prove that they are waiting for the listener (meaning
you) to embark on a travelling journey through time, space, and parallel
universes.

Point of Return features
powerful riffs, galloping mid-tempo waltzes in the rhythm and not to mention an
eruptive sound at times in the introduction and in the song that gives them a
brilliant take of Alice Cooper’s Billion
Dollar Babies-era as it segues into Boston
Gold. With its AOR and Prog-Rock vibes, the vocals and sound bring the vibe
of the mid-1970s.

Epic roaring guitars and the story featuring the synths
going around the piece deals with the story of the enemy coming for your life
and trying to survive. On Hungry Love, the
vocals bring to mind of a young Rob Halford hitting those high notes as Moogy
mid-sections and lead improvisations hurl through the cosmic insanity while Letare which is sung in Swedish, stands
on its own.

Electrical which I
hope is going to be a live favorite, stands out as one of the highpoints. You
have the lyrics set in a cyber-futuristic world as the sound becomes a revving,
mid-tempo, and militant driving force followed by some kick-ass drum work. I
have to say, they got it down on a piece of paper and know exactly where they
will go.

The closing title track, has these bluesy, soothing, and
haunting track as we head back into the time machine to be ready to head back
home. You have the Bass, Electric Piano, Drums, and major and minor chords it
is a space-rock surrounding voyage to set course for home as we hear the radio
serial of Escape recorded on October
22, 1950 of their take of H.G. Wells’ The
Time Machine which starred John Dehner and Lawrence Dobkin. The music near
the end syncs well to add the tension in the sequence as the machine is ready
to head into 100,000,80 A.D.

I had an amazing blast listening to Horisont’s new album.
The new album is an adventure worth checking out and you will not be
disappointed. They are bringing real good music back to the core on how it’s
supposed to sound and it has my stamp of approval. Prepare for the journey with
Horisont’s About Time.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

When I think of an artist like Richard Barbieri, I always
remind myself of his work between Japan, his collaboration with Marillion’s
Steve Hogarth with the 2012 release of Not the Weapon But the
Hand, and Porcupine Tree. He has released two solo albums from 2005 to
2008. What Barbieri is doing is not being flashy, but create these
electronic voyages and bringing the future to us through his keyboard playing
and deciding what will happen next.

This year, he has released his third solo album on the
Kscope label entitled, Planets + Persona.
He’s recorded the album in London, Sweden, and Italy. The title comes from
central themes between contrasts and shape shifting sounds. Everything on here resembles;
World Music, Far-Out Space, Jazz, Classical Guitar, German Electronic Music of
the 1970s, Post-Punk/New Wave, Radiohead, and David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy.

Richard creates this gigantic long road that he built from
scratch. It goes from a grassy meadow into a mansion-like steampunk house that looks very much
inside of a Rubik’s cube with puzzling technology that is far beyond what the
future will have in store for us in the 21st and the 22nd century. And then
taking us into far, far away planets and dreamlike atmospheres.

He brought along some guests to help out including; Percy
Jones and Axel Crone on Bass Guitars, Kjell Severinsson on Drums, Luca
Calabrese on Trumpet, Lisen Rylander Love on Vocals, Sound Design, Ominchord,
and Sax, Klas Assarsson on Vibraphone, Grice Peters on Kora, and Christian
Saggese on Acoustic Guitar. The sonic experimental vibrations give an
affectional blessing that Barbieri has given to us.

What Richard is doing, is not just giving Planets + Persona an amazing album,
but a spell binding release. As I’ve mentioned earlier with the genres, he
brings it all to the listener to embark on a strange, surreal, and a cosmic journey
beyond space and time. For example with Solar
Sea, the last 2-minutes of the opening track after the first six minutes of
setting for lift-off, mid-blaring Trumpets, electronica grooves, and surreal
vocalizations, it changes into a reminiscent of Klaus Schulze’s Irrlicht-era in which he takes us deep,
deeper into the ocean for ominous piano chords and eerie orchestral scratches
to fill the time that sends a chilling atmosphere.

The 10-minute piece, Night
of the Hunter which takes its name and inspired by Charles Laughton’s 1955
film classic. The only film he’s ever directed. With this three-part movement
of the composition, he creates these textures as if he was writing an alternate
score for the film. You have the first section of Summer which starts for the morning to rise featuring classical
guitars, piano’s going through a Leslie speaker, effects, and strings waiting for
the sun to come up to begin a new day, but it’s too late.

Everything turns into a dystopian nightmare with Shake Hands with Danger. You can feel
the eruption through the dooming bass, vocalizing moments, and electronic
trip-hop drum beats including the line spoken and knowing that this is not the
dream you’ve expected from Big Brother and knowing that he’s watching every
sense and step you make.

The last section, Innocence
Lost, is a chilling scenario. With alarming jazz sections between the Sax,
Trumpet, and Drums, it closes the piece with reverb effects done in the style
between Miles Davis and King Crimson’s Bitches
Brew and Lizard period that made
the rest of my arm hairs going up.

The album gets better and better each time I would delve
into Barbieri’s conceptual ideas. One of them is Shafts of Light. It is Richard combining both electronic, minimal,
and classical music into a gigantic circle. There are elements between Philip
Glass’ Music in 12 Parts and Terry
Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air. I
love how he would sandwich the sounds between Saggese’s acoustic guitar,
musique-concrete moments, and vocals which he had put together by making this
puzzle and making sure they match well to the piece.

And it does. Mind you this is not an easy album to listen to,
but what Richard has done is to creating a mysterious doorway to the sounds
and shifting moments that will chill you to the bone. This has everything on
here as I’ve mentioned earlier of the genres it brings to mind. So if you are
ready for the sounds of electronica, jazz, classical, and experimental music,
then prepare to climb aboard the shuttle to the sounds of Planets + Persona.

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About Me

I'm a blogger/freelance writer from Houston, TX who writes album reviews because I enjoy it. Even though, I'm not the best writer, there is no stop sign for me. I have a love of Progressive Rock music, Jazz Fusion, and Early Heavy Metal music from the '60s to the early '80s. I went to HCC (Houston Community College) for nine years and have completed my degree in Music in Performance: Jazz Studies. I've been writing Progressive Rock and Symphonic Metal reviews starting back in 2008 on my blogsite and it never gets old.